George Fiott Day was Southampton’s first recipient of the Victoria Cross. Day, known as ‘Dare-Devil Day’, won the medal during the Crimean War when he crawled through enemy lines to discover the whereabouts of the Russian fleet.
He was the son of Charles Day of Spear Hall, a large country house just off Portswood Road. This was the same Charles Day who co-established the iron works in Millbrook and who financed his other son, Charles Arthur Day, and William Summers to set up their engineering works at Northam, initially known as Day, Summers and later as Summers Groves and Day.
George Fiott Day
Undated portrait
Newspaper clippings (available online or accessible through the Local Studies Library):
"VC for gallant hero George" (Southern Daily Echo 09/02/2007). Article describes Day's exploits. Includes a picture of Spear Hall and one of the family in 1820, when George Day was a baby. Says that a headstone was unveiled in the cemetery to commemorate Day in 2002 by the mayor.
Further reading:
Southampton Occasional Notes, by ‘Townsman’, p54-55. (HS/h)
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